--- title: House Bidding War Won With Promise of Free Pizza description: To win a bidding war on a home in Portland, Oregon, one buyer sweetened up his offer with a promise of free pizza for life to the sellers. The strange move convinced the sellers to bite. authors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Housing - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2015-06-03T20:03:14.000Z' modified: '2024-04-16T05:57:45.000Z' section: Housing tags: - Buying a House - Odd Spending - Pizza - real estate word_count: 335 canonical: https://money.com/free-pizza-house-bid-portland/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![House Bidding War Won With Promise of Free Pizza](https://money.com/content.money.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/150529_rea_billforhouse.jpg?crop=0px%2C291px%2C2100px%2C1181px&resize=1012%2C569&quality=85&strip&ssl=1) In a bidding war for a house, the highest bidder doesn't always win. Bids are often accompanied by letters intended to sway the seller, and some real estate agents swear there's an art to writing a [heartfelt personal letter](https://money.com/home-buying-bidding-war-write-letter-to-seller-win-the-house/) about why you're the right buyer for the home in question. While this tactic might seem cheesy or manipulative, it sometimes does the trick. In the ultra-hot home market that is Portland, Ore., where homes are [selling 15% quicker](http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/blog/real-estate-daily/2015/05/portlands-25-hottest-neighborhoods-where-homes-are.html) than they were a year ago and where it's not unheard of for buyers to offer [$100,000 over asking price](http://www.katu.com/news/problemsolver/Want-to-buy-in-Portland-housing-market-Get-ready-to-fight-for-it-302692751.html), a nice letter probably isn't going to cut it. But in one recent instance, it looks like adding a personal, very unusual touch to the bid for a home pushed the offer over the edge. As the [*Oregonian*](http://www.oregonlive.com/front-porch/index.ssf/2015/06/luck_money_and_pizza_delivers.html) reported, over Memorial Day weekend 23-year-old Johnny Barrett was intrigued with a home in southeast Portland listed for $249,000, but he assumed that there would be a bidding war and the property would sell for far over asking price. Nonetheless, he put in an offer. It was no ordinary offer: At the suggestion of his real estate agent, he sweetened his bid quite literally with a promise of free pizza for life to the seller. Barrett, you see, is part of the family that owns DeNicola's Italian Restaurant, a local eatery where he works as a cook. "This is the first offer I've written in free pizza," the agent, [Mindy Shierk of A Group Real Estate](http://www.agrouprealestate.com/about/mindy-shierk/), said. "We thought, 'We'll try, let's see.'" The offer enticed the sellers to bite, in more ways than one. Once the sale is final they'll be indefinitely entitled to one free pizza per month at DeNicola's. Guess this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. Sellers in Portland may have come to expect two or three dozen offers on homes, many of them over asking price. But it's a safe bet that not too many offers come with free pizza for life. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/free-pizza-house-bid-portland/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Housing", "item": "https://money.com/housing/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Home Buying", "item": "https://money.com/home-buying/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "House Bidding War Won With Promise of Free Pizza" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/free-pizza-house-bid-portland/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/free-pizza-house-bid-portland/", "name": "House Bidding War Won With Promise of Free Pizza", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-06-03T20:03:14.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/free-pizza-house-bid-portland/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/free-pizza-house-bid-portland/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-16T05:57:45.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "House Bidding War Won With Promise of Free Pizza", "articleSection": "Housing", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/05/150529_rea_billforhouse.jpg?quality=85", "width": 2100, "height": 1491 } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-06-03T20:03:14.000Z", "description": "To win a bidding war on a home in Portland, Oregon, one buyer sweetened up his offer with a promise of free pizza for life to the sellers. 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